Hargreaves Lansdown Expert Review: The Waitrose Of the Investing World

Hargreaves Landsdown operate outside of the law demanding Facial Recognition to verify accounts of both new and existing customers. They will tell you its the only way to verify, but when you look into the privacy law, this is simply not the case.

The system they use is MITEK. A quick search will show you who owns MITEK. Its the same corporations whom own everything.

Furthermore, HL are using extremely unscrupulous resources to keep their image squeeky clean by using BLACK MARKETING sources to write positive reviews. They pay approx £10 a review. Search Black Marketing and you will find many people happy to lie and cheat for money.

Go onto Trustpilot and see how many reviews they receive per day. I just counted over 20 in 24 hours. This is a statistical impossibility.

Now, do you really want a company that lies and cheats and sells your data to look after your hard earning money?

Think about that

I have been a customer of theirs for many years and i am absolutely disgusted at their practices and you should be too.

one of the very few services that allows for some investments… It could be improved and made even more powerful (i.e. investments in other currencies) but really probably the best platform for easy access and universe of investments possible!

I’ve used HL for more than 10 years. They used to be low cost. Customer service was excellent. Online platform was great. Still not bad, but other platforms are now cheaper. Slower to resolve the occasional problem.

Hargreaves Lansdown are good value for those that are low volume traders of stocks. If you hold funds then they are not such great value because of the admin fees that they charge. However, they don’t charge dealing fees on funds which is a good point. A negative thought is that fund trades have to be placed by 9am or 8am for some in order to receive that day’s valuation price. Many other brokers have a cut-off time of 11am-11.30am. HL are also one of the slowest to update fund prices – if you check Fidelity, Morningstar or AJ Bell, at 4pm, most fund prices are update, whereas HL take until 6pm or later.

The process of placing a deal with HL using the app is the best of many brokers that I have used as it is so smooth and quick. Very quick to login. However, there are many small companies, foreign companies or investment trusts that don’t load up on the app and only can be viewed or traded on the desktop website.

The app and website are my first choice for checking share prices and news/RNS releases for UK stocks. Historical performance indicators are good too. However there is no provision of key metric data like P/CF, Forward P/E, Debt/Equity, Quick ratio, current ratio, Free cash flow yield, ROCE, ROE, ROA etc so I have to go to Reuters or other sites to check such details.

HL has always been very unaccommodating for those who wished to subscribe to IPOs or share offers, I have found other brokers providing access to new IPOs but HL will not.

They also have a strange system whereby they put dividends you receive into a hidden account and then only 2 weeks later transfer them to your capital account to allow you to trade with that cash.

Watchlists are very good in providing current prices and being well layed out.

It would be good if we could see futures prices for US markets and individual stocks in the morning when the UK is open. I have to check marketwatch or investing.com for that.

Why can’t you make charts with HL of different stocks all on the same chart?

The total return chart function is great for funds but why can’t that be extended to longer than 5 year periods and for stocks as well?

HL is an excellent platform as it’s easy to use and set up. It does however have rather large fees when buying a share. Considering the number of clients they have I’m surprised they remain high and is the reason I am looking for an alternative for my Stocks and Shares ISA

When you are a newbie to investing, it can be overwhelming, there are sharks in the tank that you need to avoid, along with many obstacles to overcome. While no financial organisation can deliver guidance with a crystal ball – I have found Hargreaves’s Lansdown to operate with expertise and business integrity with a focus on client satisfaction. This has led me to confidently invest in a safe and secure environment with top class educated guidance. I don’t think you can do better than that.

Set up Junior ISAs for my kids last year with 0% commission on all trades into and out of the Junior ISAs has been an excellent way to get them started in investing. I use other resources for keeping track of my portfolio but the overall service provides excellent value for money.

I have been a customer of Hargreaves Lansdowne for many decades, and I use the platform to manage my stocks and shares ISA, my SIPP, plus my Fund and Share Account.

The platform is easy to navigate

The choice of investments is wide ranging.

The customer service is very good, though not as good as it used to be since a cost saving exercise about a year ago.

Obviously, other platforms are cheaper, and for that reason I cannot give it five stars.

It is safe and secure like a trusted old friend, and long may that continue.

Love the lack of fees on the product for the junior ISA. Really draws me in to make the most of the contributions that are made to it. However I really don’t enjoy using the HL website to manage the JISA. It lacks a lot of the ease of use that you find in other products e.g. Invest Engine, Trading 212 that HL should be able to compete with. Just changing my contribution / d

Good service speed, feedback clear website